Syngas (mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide), also called synthesis gas, can be readily produced from coal, methane (natural gas), or any carbonaceous feedstock by methods well known in the art and widely commercially practiced around the world. A number of well-known industrial processes use syngas for producing various oxygenated organic chemicals. The Fischer-Tropsch (“FT”) catalytic process for catalytically producing hydrocarbons from syngas was initially discovered and developed in the 1920's, and was used in South Africa for many years to produce gasoline range hydrocarbons as automotive fuels. The catalysts typically comprised iron or cobalt supported on alumina or titania, and promoters, like rhenium, zirconium, manganese, and the like were sometimes used with cobalt catalysts, to improve various aspects of catalytic performance. The products were typically gasoline-range hydrocarbon liquids having six or more carbon atoms, along with heavier hydrocarbon products.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a method for producing an olefin from natural gas through reforming the natural gas to syngas and an apparatus for doing the same.